Or perhaps more accurately, I was Catholic. Not anymore. I wasn't excommunicated or anything, but I haven't been to Mass in a while. But being Catholic isn't just about being bored out of your mind. After all, Protestants are perfectly capable of being bored.

It's also about feeling bad about everything you do, always knowing that sometime that day you probably committed a sin and the fact that you've forgotten what it was just makes it worse. In contrast Protestants feel no remorse or guilt. Sorry about the tangent, but while I'm making fun of Protestants, I have this brief snippet of gchat.

Kelpsacovic: We're not sexistGuildy: No? Then why can't women be priests?Kelpsacovic: It is scientific fact that women priests act in reverse, sending people to hell.Kelpsacovic: We tested it.Kelpsacovic: See: Protestantism.

But getting back from the Protestant jokes: As a Catholic I am plagued by the constant question: "Should I feel bad about this?" And so I am led to my dilemma.

I watch the AH for certain materials, such as infinite dust, certain shards, and epic DE results. I don't use an addon which specifically finds 'underpriced' items, but I instead of a set of saved searches: infinite dust, dream shard, large brilliant shard; those sort of things. I search and use those results to determine what is profitable to put on a scroll and sometimes what is so cheap that I buy it even if I don't need it an time soon. Sometimes I resell that stuff.

Should I feel bad about that?

If I was a Protestant I wouldn't. I'd pretend I did work and made money off it and therefore I'm righteous. Then I'd kick an Irish child into the mud and tell him to get back to work in the coal mines.

The issue isn't that I spent time. I certainly did. But who was the last significant person to measure everything purely by time spent? Marx, that's who. And look how that turned out: people misrepresented everything he said, started a revolution (or two) in the wrong places, and then other people declared it a failure. Meanwhile the capitalists sold some excellent summer homes in Siberia, from which one can see Sarah Palin's house. My point is, merely spending time does not mean the person should get anything in return. Is any value added, that's the true issue.

I suppose I could say yes. After all, if prices were only 1g then, demand was low, so I was merely helping suppliers to move unwanted inventory; while when prices are high I am helping to fulfill demand, helping keep crafters employed and people enchanted. I effectively turn an unwanted item into a wanted item. Or I just have a few spare mail slots and don't really do jack shit.

Or do I? If I was not doing this, who would? Why those awful speculators, flipping mats and screwing up markets. I've done a god-damn service by depriving them of some small amount of gold. I'm underpaid! Yes, my speculation is clearly a good thing, helping to drive away the speculators. Oh fuck, I became one. Forgive me, Father, for I have profited from the poor timing of others.

[edit] Abortion jokes aren't funny. I thought I'd removed that. Oops.

I suppose this post sounds a bit odd. Maybe. But this is actually typical of at least 10% of my posts. Minimum. I have a lot of drafts and deleted drafts. Actually I don't have the deleted drafts. Because I deleted them. Others I edit heavily to remove what would otherwise be half a post devoted to explaining why comparisons to Hitler are actually quite valid, the problem is that people too quickly get emotionally involved rather than maintaining the heartless distance which is necessary for such high-minded topics such as During the beer hall shouting matches, how frequently Hilter interjected with "Das sie spragt!" That's not Babelfish. That's my own terrible grammar.

7
comments:

A religion based on constraining people in the form of guilt for just about everything is both old-fashioned and stupid.

Heck, when it comes to morality, every religion is stupid.I believe the best way to find a set of rules to live up to is simply trying to be impartial on the matter, ignore the usual dogma and generally accepted opinions about it and after that try and make a personal opinion. For a reasonable person it is the best course of action to embrace imo.

About your arbitrage moral question: there is a little thing called "the law of the jungle" by which all animals have lived and evolved. And humans became what they became in the process of living by that law, way before religion and all that crap appeared. There's your answer, imo.

gaming article with a splash of religious bigotry. Classy.... As a protestant i dont find your comments amusing in the slightest and think its in pretty bad taste. But hey if thats what you want to write about fair enough.

@ IapetesMethinks though dost protestant too much. lololol Catholics been playing this game way longer than Protestants, in WoW terms they played during classic, you guys came on board with TBC. Jews were in the beta.

@KlepsacovicWell, I thought it was pretty clearly tongue in cheek, and amusing.

I think this question is tricky because it's not really clear how you are defining 'value' in this situation.

If you think about value in terms of times of high supply/low demand and low supply/high demand, the value that flippers provide is in moving items from a time/place where an item is priced low and moving it to one where it is priced high.